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The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 



An address by Geo. W. J^artin, Secretary of the State Historical Society, before the Old 
Settlers' Association at" Alma, September 28. Independence, October 16, and at the Banquet 
at Kansas City, Kan.. October 18, 1909, in honor of the Wyandotte Convention. 

A REVIEW of all that happened leading to the establishment of the 
■^^ boundary lines of Kansas takes us back to the very beginning, and 
shows with absorbing interest how everything concerning negro slavery 
focused toward a conclusion upon this rectangle of beautiful prairie now 
called Kansas. The Jefferson proviso of 1784 and the ordinance of 1787 in- 
dicated a settled policy against the extension of slavery. Notwithstanding 
this Louisiana was admitted into the Union with slavery in 1812. There 
was no particular occasion or demand, so history tells us, for this, especially 
as the language of the treaty under which the territory had been acquired 
from France was also plainly against it. In 1818, six years later, Missouri 
applied for admission into the Union. There were, in 1820, 1,469,061 slaves 
in the whole country, outside of Louisiana. In the case of Missouri it was 
proposed to incorporate into the bill a clause requiring that the constitution 
of the new state should contain an article prohibiting the further introduc- 
tion of slaves, and gradually abolishing existing slavery. There was violent 
opposition. The provision prevailed in the house, and was rejected in the 
senate. 

In the next Congress the controversy was renewed with increased vio- 
lence. And here the famous Missouri compromise was born. Missouri was 
allowed to come into the Union with slavery, but a section was incorporated 
in the act excluding slavery forever from all the territory acquired from 
France, not included in Missouri, lying north of 36° 30' north latitude. The 
constitutionality of this provision was submitted by President Monroe to his 
cabinet. Four of them, being from the South, gave written affirmative 
opinions, and so the President, also from a slave state, signed the bill. 

Missouri could not have been admitted as a slave state had not certain 
members from the free states been reconciled by the incorporation of this 
prohibition in the act of admission. However, it is not the purpose of this 
paper to pursue the wearisome question of slavery, but rather look up the 
boundary lines of Kansas, which cannot be done and ignore this significant 
line of 36° 30' north. There can be no history of Kansas without reference 
to this line ; nor can we follow this line without some slight reference to 
the institution of slavery, and how the ante bellum statesmen straddled the 
line in 1S50, and again in 1854. 

Slavery was permitted in Missouri by a vote, March 2, 1820, of 27 to 15 
in the United States senate, and 90 to 87 in the house. Missouri was ad- 
mitted March 2, 1821, but the conditions were not complied with until August 
10, 1821, when the President proclaimed the state in the Union. The com- 
promise line of 36° 30' is the south line of Missouri, "west, along the 9ame, 
to a point where the said parallel is intersected by a meridian line passing 
through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river, where the same emp- 
ties into the Missouri river." This is the first mention of the east line of 
Kansas. But June 7, 1836, Congress changed the west line of Missouri 



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2 Kansas State Historical Society. 

north of the Kansas river from the meridian to the Missouri river, by add- 
ing to that state the Platte purchase. This was the first violation of the 
compromise of 1820, thus adding free-soil to slave territory. And so we 
have the east line of the territory and state of Kansas following the Mis- 
souri river from Kansas City northward. If it had not been for this change 
Kansas would have been a perfect oblong, including the Missouri river and 
five of the best counties in that state. 

The admission of Missouri, the annexation of Texas, the creation of Ore- 
gon territory, the compromise act of 1850, and the Nebraska-Kansas bill, 
form a chain of historic incidents not surpassed. 

Texas was admitted as a state March 1, 1845. The Missouri compromise 
was reaffirmed in the bill thus : "And such states as may be formed out of 
that portion of the said territory lying south of 36° and 30' north latitude, 
commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted into 
the Union, with or without slavery, as the people of each state asking ad- 
mission may desire; and in such state or states as shall be formed out of 
said territory north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery or involuntary 
servitude (except for crime) shall be prohibited." 

The bill creating the territory of Oregon became a law August 14, 1848. 
It reaffirmed the ordinance of 1787, excluding slavery from all the North- 
west territory. 

This line of 36° 80' north latitude runs parallel with the south line of 
Kansas, about thirty miles distant, through Oklahoma. So that Kansas 
was surely pledged to free soil. In the early discussions of the slavery 
question the Mason and Dixon line was frequently referred to as the dividing 
line between freedom and slavery. This was the boundary line between 
Pennsylvania and Maryland, estabHshed in 1763-67, by Charles Mason and 
Jeremiah Dixon. It ran due west from the Delaware river 244 miles, in 
north latitude 39° 43' 26". It was resurveyed in 1849, and found to be cor- 
rect. It was a mere trifle in importance as compared with the line of 36° 
30' which led up to the Kansas controversy. 

Trouble again arose in 1850, and another compromise was made renewing 
the line of 36° 30'. The territories of New Mexico and Utah were created, 
to be admitted as states when ready, with or without slavery, as the people 
might determine (New Mexico being south and Utah north of 36° 30', Utah 
being pledged to freedom by the original act), California admitted with a 
constitution prohibiting slavery, the passage of the fugitive slave law, and 
abolishing the slave trade in the District of Columbia. These five acts are 
known as the compromise of 1850. 

But in 1854 Senator Douglas was the champion of a bill practically re- 
pealing the Missouri compromise of 1820. He proposed in the Nebraska bill 
"to leave the people of the territories perfectly free to form and regulate 
their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution 
of the United States." This opened the ball, the Free-soilers of the North 
asserting that this revived and reestablished slavery north of the line of 36° 
30'. Everybody, I take it, knows all about the effort of the South to estab- 
lish slavery in Kansas, from which territory it had been excluded, and the 
wonderful history which followed.' 

Note 1.— The Kansas-Nebraska bill was the act of Congress by which the territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska were organized. 1854. It turned out to be one of the most important acts 
in the legislative history of the United States. It precipitated the final phases of the slavery 

D. Of D. 

IVIAY ^.e 1910 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 3 

The original title read "An act to organize the territories of Nebraska 
and Kansas," and the movement was then referred to as the Nebraska 
question. But the violence of the controversy in the attempt to force 
slavery into Kansas overshadowed Nebraska, and so it has ever since been 
known as the "Kansas-Nebraska act." As originally organized the terri- 
tory of Nebraska extended from the fortieth parallel (the present south 
line of the state of Nebraska) to British America, and from the Missouri 
river to the Rocky Mountains. A portion of Colorado, that part of North 
Dakota and South Dakota lying west of the Missouri river, and all of what 
is now Montana and Wyoming east of the summit of the Rockies, were 
taken from Nebraska. Nebraska was admitted into the Union as the thirty- 
seventh state, in its present shape, March 1, 1867. 

The territory of Kansas was formed as follows: "Beginning at a point 
on the western boundary of the state of Missouri, where the thirty-seventh 
parallel of north latitude crosses the same (about thirty miles north of the 
southwest corner of Missouri, or 36° 30' parallel of north latitude); thence 
west on said parallel to the eastern boundary of New Mexico ; thence north 
on said boundary to latitude thirty-eight ; thence following said boundary 
westward to the east boundary of the territory of Utah, on the summit of 
the Rocky Mountains ; thence northward on said summit to the fortieth 
parallel of latitude ; thence east on said parallel to the western boundary of 
the state of Missouri ; thence south with the western boundary of said state 
(being a meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the 
Kansas river) to the place of beginning." 

The following letter concerning the southern boundary line explains 
itself: ' 

"Washington, March 24, 1910. 
"Geo. W. Martin, Esq., Secretary Historical Society: 

"My Dear Mr. Martin— I acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 
January 21, 1910, requesting information as to the reasons for the choice of 
the thirty-seventh degree of north latitude for the southern boundary line 
of the state of Kansas, and asking whether there was a fraction of Osage 
land lying south of this parallel of latitude. You invite attention also to 
what appears to be a narrow strip of the Osage Reservation lying in the 
Indian Territory north of the Cherokee lands, as shown by plates CXXIX 
and CXXX, Eighteenth Annual Report, Bureau of Ethnology. 

"An examination of the plates to which you refer indicates that the strip 
of land mentioned was formed by a correction line, or auxiliary base line, 
which extends across the entire northern part of Oklahoma and is located 
some six or seven miles south of the northern boundary of that state. 

"The thirty-seventh parallel of north latitude appears to have been fixed 
as the southern boundary of the territory of Kansas by section 19 of the 
Act of Congress organizing the territories of Nebraska and Kansas ap- 
proved May 30. 1854 (10 Stat. L., 277, 283), and there is nothing in this 
office to show the reasons for its choice as such southern boundary. 

"This parallel did not, however, form the dividing line between the 
Cherokee and Osage Nations, the lands belonging to the former which were 
located in Kansas being a narrow strip approximately 2^ miles wide and ly- 
ing just north of the thirty-seventh degree. 

"By the act approved January 29, 1861 (12 Stat. L., 126), admitting 
Kansas into t he Union as a state, the thirty-seventh d egree of north lati- 

struggle, which resulted in the Civil War. It led to the reorganization of political parties. It 
started a renewal of the contest between the North and the South over a question which had 
been regarded as settled for many years, at least by the compromise measures of 1820 and 1850. 
It stirred the passions of the people of both sections, g-ave rise to bitter and protracted contro- 
versies, both in and out of Congress, and doubtless considerably hastened a resort to arms. This 
bill sealed the doom of the Whig party; it led to the formation of the Republican party: it raised 
Lincoln and gave a vent to his great political ambition.— St. Louis Republic, January 23, 1910. 



4 Kansas State Historical Society. 

tude was again fixed as the southern boundary of the state; but by a sub- 
sequent provision in section 1 thereof the lands of all Indian tribes located 
within the limits or jurisdiction of the territory were expressly 'excepted 
out of the boundaries, and constituted no part of the state of Kansas until 
such tribes shall signify their assent to the President of the United States 
to be included within said state, or to affect the authority of the government 
of the United States to make any regulation respecting such Indians, their 
lands, property or other rights, by treaty, law or otherwise, which it would 
have been competent to make if this act had never passed. ' 

"Congress thus in effect moved the boundary line of the state so far 
northward as to exclude the so-called Cherokee Strip and the lands of all 
other Indian tribes which had not theretofore ceded their lands to the United 
States, until such time as the said Indian tribes should comply with the re- 
quirements of the act. 

"By the treaty of July 19, 1866, ratified and confirmed by the act ap- 
proved July 31, 1866 (14 Stat. L., 799, 804), the Cherokee Nation (see ar- 
ticle XVII) ceded in trust to the United States the tract of land in Kansas 
which was sold to the Cherokees by the United States under article II of 
the treaty of 1835; also, the strip of land ceded to the Nation by the fourth 
article of said treaty, which was located in Kansas, and gave its consent 
for the said lands to be included within the limits and jurisdiction of the 
state of Kansas. 

"Subsequent to the treaty with the Cherokees the rights of the other 
tribes who had lands in Kansas, with the exception of the Quapaws. were 
ceded to the United States, and by the treaty of February 23, 1867 (15 Stat. 
L , 513, 514), the Quapaws ceded all their right, title and claim to lands in 
Kansas ; thereby virtually restoring the thirty-seventh degree of north 
latitude as the southern boundary of the state. 

Very respectfully, John Francis, jr.. 

Acting Chief Land Division." 

It is safe to say on a very superficial examination of the volumes and 
volumes of debates on the Kansas question from 1854 to 1861 that there was 
no controversy whatever as to these lines. Nor is there anywhere to be 
found an explanation of why or how these lines were chosen. ^ It just hap- 
pened so. Nature laid out this beautiful piece of territory and an overruling 
Providence spared its dismemberment. And what was Kansas originally? 

Note 2.— As early as 1848 an effort was made to organize a territorial government in the 
Indian territory west of the Missouri river. In 1844 the Secretary of War recommended an or- 
ganization. On the 12th of October, 1852. an election for a delegate was held at the Wyandotte 
council house, and Abelard Guthrie received all the votes cast. There was much opposition to 
the opening of the territory. Another election was held at Fort Leavenworth and Guthrie de- 
feated a man named Banow by a vote of 54 to 16. Guthrie started for Washington on the 20th of 
November, 1852. He did very effective work in forcing a consideration of the question of 
the organization of Nebrasl:a territory. October 11. 1853. Rev. Thomas Johnson was elected 
•delegate to Congress. A bitter fight prevailed between Abelard Guthrie and Thomas Johnson. 
But several precincts further up the river voted for Hadley D. Johnson, of Council Bluffs, Iowa, 
the returns from which seem to have been ignored. But our purpose relates only to the origin 
of the boundary line. For many interesting details of those days, see Connelley's Provisional 
Government of Nebraska Territory. Hadley D. Johnson arrived in Washington early in January, 
1854. The following is from a statement by Mr. Johnson in the Nebraska Historical Report, 
vol. 2, p. 80 : 

"I also found, seated at a desk, in the house of representatives, a portly, dignified, elderly 
gentleman, who was introduced to me as the Rev. Thomas Johnson. He was an old Virginian, 
a slaveholder, and a Methodist preacher. . . . 

" On being introduced to Mr. Johnson, who seemed somewhat stiff and reserved, I alluded to 
the manner of my appointment to the present mission, which, like his own, was without legal 
sanction, but was for a purpose ; told him there was no occasion for a contest between us for a 
seat to which neither of us had a claim ; that I came there to suggest and work for the organiza- 
tion of the two territories instead of one : that if he saw proper to second my efforts, I believed 
that we could succeed in the objects for which we each had come. . . . 

"The fates decreed, however, that we were not to hold our seats a great while, for one day 
the principal doorkeeper approached me as I sat in my seat, and politely inquired who I was, and 
by what right I occupied the seat ; and being by me answered according to the facts, he informed 
me that a complaint had been made to the speaker; he was under the necessity of respectfully 
asking me to vacate the seat, as such was the order of the speaker. I replied to him that of 
course I would do so; but, I added, as my neighbor on my left occupied his seit by a right similar 
to my own, I felt it to be my privilege to inquire why I should be ousted while he was permitted 
to remain. On this the doorkeeper turned to Mr. John n, who corroborated my statement, 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 5 

Rev. John G. Pratt, missionary to the Delaware Indians, in comparing Kan- 
sas then and to-day, thinks the white man has desecrated nature. He says -J 

"My first introduction to Kansas was in 1837. Leaving Boston in April 
with my wife we reached the then territory May 14, being about four weeks 
in slow but uninterrupted travel. The territory at that time was in perfect 
quiet, and a most beautiful country it was. Coming from the Atlantic, my 
first look at a green open prairie on a sunny day seemed to be a look at the 
ocean, with which I was so familiar, but this was also Flora in her gayest 
attire ; the eye was too limited in its capacity to take in such wide and far- 
extended area of beauty— the like will never be seen again in Kansas. The 
coming of dwellers has spoiled all this. Though still the Sunflower state, the 
earher dress of nature was more comely— it was nature's beauty." 

In 1853, Percival G. Lowe, of Leavenworth, went out with Major E. A. 
Ogden when Fort Riley was located, and here is his first impression :^ 

"Of all charming and fascinating portions of our country, probably there 
is none where nature has been so lavish as within a radius of 150 miles, 
taking Fort Riley as the center. In rich soil, building material, in beauty 
of landscape, wooded streams and bubbling springs, in animal life, in every- 
thing to charm the eye, gladden the heart, yield to the industry of man- 
here was the climax of the most extravagant dream, perfect in all its wild 
beauty and productiveness ; perfect in all that nature's God could hand down 
to man for his improvement and happiness." 

Rev. Charles Brandon Boynton made an exploration in the fall of 1854, 
which was published under the title "Journey through Kansas. "= He says: 

"But the first hour's ride over the prairies of Kansas spread before us 
such a picture, varying every moment and beautiful in every change, as we 
had no previous conception of, and drew from us continued expressions of a 
delight that would not be suppressed. One can form no correct idea of the 
prairies of Kansas by a previous knowledge of those of Indiana and Illinois; 
and residents in Iowa add the same remark of theirs. How, without the 
majesty of mountains or lakes, or broad rivers, and with so few colors as 
here are seen, such an efi'ect can be produced, is worthy the study of artists. 
It is a magnificent picture of God. that stirs irresistibly and inexplicably 
the soul of every beholder. Young and old, the educated and the unlearned, 
alike feel the influence of its spell, and each in his own language gives ut- 
terance to his delight and wonder, or stands breathless and mute. There 
are many scenes in Kansas that can scarcely be remembered even with- 

whereupon the "two Johnsons," as we were called, were incontinently bounced and relegate 
to the galleries. 

"I never learned, nor did I care to know, whether I was removed at the instance of thf 
friend of Mr. Johnson, or whether a Mr. Guthrie, who had also been a candidate for delegate, 
had fired a shot at his adversary, the Rev. Thomas. If the latter was the case, in firing he hit 
two birds. I did not feel hurt by this event, but believe that the dignity of the other Johnson 
was seriously touched, and himself mortified. 

"I ought, perhaps, to mention the fact that, in our negotiations as to the dividing line be- 
tween Kansas and Nebraska, a good deal of trouble was encountered; Mr. Johnson and his Mis- 
souri friends being very anxious that the Platte river should constitute the line, which obviously 
would not suit the people of Iowa, especially as I believe it was a plan of the American Company 
to colonize the Indians north of the Platte river. As this plan did not meet with the approbation 
of my friends or myself. I firmly resolved that this line should not be adopted. Judge Douglas 
was kind enough to leave that question to me, and I offered to Mr. Johnson the choice of two 
lines— first, the present line, or second, an imaginary line traversing the divide between the 
Platte and the Kaw. After considerable parleying, and Mr. Johnson not being willing to accept 
either line, I finally offered the two alternatives— the fortieth degree of north latitude, or the de- 
feat of the whole bill, for that session at least. After consulting with his friends, I presume, 
Mr. Johnson very reluctantly consented to the fortieth degree as the dividing line between the 
two territories, whereupon Judge Douglas prepared and introduced the substitute in a report as 
chairman of the committee on territories, and immediately pi-obably the hardest war of words 
known in American history commenced." 

Note 3.— Letter to Franklin G. Adams, January 12, 1889. 

Note 4.-Kan. Hist. Coll., vol. 7, p. 101. 

Note 5.— Page 45. 



Kansas State Histo7ical Society. 





SAMUEL DEXTER HOUSTON, 

Salina, Kan. 

Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859 

Died February 28, 1910. 



C. B. McCLELLAN, 

Oskaloosa, Kan. 

Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859 



out tears. The soul melts in the presence of the wonderful beauty of the 
workmanship of God." 

Max Greene was another early-day explorer in 1855. He also published 
a book, 8 in which he says: 

"Here through the exhilarating crystal air, on every hand, are scenes 
of natural glory, the sublime of loveliness, whose only appropriate descrip- 
tion would be a passionate lyric to flicker along the nerves like solemn 
harmonies of mighty bards." 

The east boundary of Utah, "the summit of the Rocky Mountains" ac- 
cording to what was known at that time, is a very vague and indefinite ex- 
pression. Another statement of the western line says: "Westward to the 
summit of highlands dividing the waters flowing into the Colorado of the 
West or Green river, from the waters flowing into the great basin." It is 
usually understood that the territory of Kansas extended nearly to the 
present eastern line of Utah. At that time probably no one knew. A topo- 
graphical map of the United States, issued in 1907, shows the summit of 
the Rocky Mountains, called the "Continental Divide," to be a trifle west 
of Leadville. West of this point the waters flow into the Gulf of California, 
and east the waters flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The east line of Utah 
is very near the one hundred and ninth meridian west, but the summit of 
the mountains is shown to be so irregular as not to be stated by lines. Sev- 
eral of the old maps show the west line of Kansas territory following the 



Note 6.— The Kansas Region, p. 14. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 7 

continental divide. Undoubtedly, therefore, the territory of Kansas did 
not include the whole of Colorado, but say about two-thirds of it, or a few 
miles west of Leadville. 

The western line of Missouri, "a meridian line passing through the middle 
of the mouth of the Kansas river, ' ' is the eastern line of Kansas. Thus is desig- 
nated one of the most conspicuous points on the continent. Here the line 
is a street cutting in almost equal parts the most interesting and promising 
city in the land. This street is lined with untold millions of wealth in rail- 
roads, packing houses, stockyards, and general manufactures. The mouth 
of the Kansas river was accurately determined by astronomical observation 
in 1804 by Lewis and Clark, the explorers, to be latitude 38° 31' 13".'' 
There has always been some controversy as to whether or not the mouth of 
the Kansas has changed. I see no way of determining whether it changed 
between the date of the location given by Lewis and Clark in 1804 and the 
date of the settlement of the boundary line in 1821. The report of the 
Geodetic Survey in 1902 gives the latitude and longitude of the Second 
Presbyterian church spire (northwest corner of Thirteenth and Central, 
Kansas City, Mo.) to be latitude 39° 05' 55. 813" and longitude 94° 35' 13. 448". s 
In 1899 Mr. W. E. Connelley made a careful study of this matter, and con- 
cluded that the line is where it always was.^ Mr. C. L McClung, "* who has 
had much experience in the engineering department of Kansas City, Kan., 
tells me that the distance between the mouth of the Kansas river and 
Thirteenth and Central, Kansas City, Mo., is 7392 feet, or one and four- 
tenths miles. 

The fortieth parallel of north latitude was made the boundary line be- 
tween the territories of Nebraska and Kansas by Congress in the act of 
May 30, 1854. It seems that in the beginning the Missourians wanted the 
Platte river, but Hadley D. Johnson, representing more northerly interests, 
insisted upon the fortieth parallel. ^^ There were no surveys then, and' 
there was no controversy in Congress about any portion of the lines. 
Neither was there any hundred-doUar-an-acre land, and so Congress acted 
like the fellow who sold a quarter section, and while the buyer was not 
looking slipped in the deed another quarter to get rid of it. Nebraska was 
extended north to the British line, and Kansas extended to the summit of 
the Rocky Mountains, a few miles beyond the present city of Leadville. 
Immediately upon the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act John Calhoun 
was made surveyor-general of Nebraska and Kansas. A contract was made 

Note 7.— Original Journals of Lewis and Clark, vol. 6, p. 239. 

Note 8.— Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1902, p. 247. 

Note 9. — See Mr. Connelley's paper on the " Western Boundary'of Missouri," which follows 
as an addenda to this article. 

Note 10.— Letter of C. I. McClung to Secretary Geo. W. Martin, dated October 5, 1909. 

Note 11.— Connelley's Provisional Government of Nebraska Territory, p. 31: "Another factor 
was entering into the movement for territorial government for Nebraska. This was the fixing 
of the location of the line of railroad soon to be built between the Pacific ocean and the Missouri 
river. Iowa wanted the initial point of this road on her western border, and Missouri contended 
that the valley of the Kansas river was the logical, most central, and most practicable route. 
Ever since the enormous and phenomenal emigration to California, the initial point of this 'great 
national highway,' as it had been called by Colonel Benton, had been a matter of contention 
between the people of Iowa and Missouri, and. to a certain extent, to the country at large. The 
North, generally, favored Council Bluffs as the starting point, and insisted that the valley of the 
Platte was the route of greatest utility, from a national standpoint. The South contended that 
the mouth of the Kansas river was a better location from which to start. The controversy fol- 
lowed the old line drawn between the Morth and South by the question of the extension of slavery, 
and was the one matter upon which the factions of the Missouri Democracy could unite." 



8 Kansas State Historical Society. 

with John P. Johnson'- to establish the northern boundary line. It was 
concluded to make it the principal base line whereupon to start the survey, 
both on the north in Nebraska and on the south in Kansas. The fortieth 
parallel was astronomically established in 1854 by Capt. T. J. Lee.^^ topo- 
graphical engineer, U. S. A, The survey was started on the 18th of No- 
vember, 1854. The party were eighteen days running west 108 miles. 
When the Missouri river was closed to northern immigration, in 1856, Ne- 
braska City was a port of entry for Kansas. 

At a banquet tendered him January 19, 1910, by the Commercial Club of 
Lincoln, Neb., Hon. Eugene F. Ware said: "In 1895 I was the attorney of 
J. P. Johnson, who was a banker at Highland, Kan. One evening he began 
telling some of his early history, and among other things said that he was a 
graduate of Harvard College, being a classmate of Senator Hoar, of Massa- 
chusetts. He said that they had had or would soon have a celebration of 
their fiftieth year after graduation. He said that, after graduation, he 
came to Illinois and got a position in a college, his specialty being mathe- 
matics, and that having made the acquaintance of Senator Stephen A. 
Douglas he became desirous of getting an appointment from the Interior De- 
partment to survey or assist in surveying the boundary line between what 
was to be Kansas and Nebraska. He received the appointment, and came 
up the Missouri river with a complete outfit, sixteen men, horses and mules, 
wagons and surveying instruments. They were told to make earthen 
mounds every few miles in good locations, easy to observe, on the line, and 
were instructed to go west until they struck the desert, and when they had 
got fully on the desert line they were to halt and put up a mound, and then 
they were to go one full day's march into the desert and establish the sixth 
principal meridian running north and south. Mr. Johnson said they went 
west until they had fully come to the desert line, and then they went a long 
day's journey into the desert. From his recollection, he thought it was 
about thirty-six miles. There, on the Kansas-Nebraska line, they raised a 
mound establishing the sixth principal meridian, and went to a dry swale 
some distance off and got rocks and capped the mound. He says a full re- 
port was made to the surveyor-general's oflfice on their return to the Missouri 
river, where the party was disbanded and government property sent to Fort 
Leavenworth and turned in. When he was telling me this, he said the sixth 
principal meridian as thus established still remained, and that he had several 
farms west of it in Jewell and Mitchell counties, which produced fine corn." 
Such towns as Clyde, Solomon, Newton, Wichita and Wellington now mark 
the sixth principal meridian. 

The southern boundary line of Kansas, the thirty-seventh parallel, was 
surveyed by Lieut.-col. J. E. Johnston, First cavalry, and finished Septem- 
ber 10, 1857. The astronomical determmations were by J. H. Clark and H. 
Campbell, the survey by J. E. Weyss. The southern boundary of the Osage 
Nation formed the northern boundary of the Cherokee Nation by treaties 
with the United States of 1828 and 1833. '^ A map of Kansas and Nebraska, 
indorsed August 5, 1854, by George W. Manypenny, Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, shows the thirty-seventh parallel as the boundary line between the 

Note 12.-Kan. Hist. Coll.. vol.7, p. 318: "Survey of the Northern Boundary Line," by C. 
W. Johnson. 

Note 13.— Gov. Samuel J. Crawford, message, 1865. 

Note 14.— Indian Affairs, Laws and Treaties, vol. 2, pp. 289, 387. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 9 

Osage and Cherokee reservations, and it is possible that in outlining the 
bounds of the new territory the line between these two tribes was adopted 
as least liable to arouse controversy. 

It is an interesting study to follow the organization and development of 
these plains. At the time of the creation of the territory there had been 
no surveying other than for Indian reservations. Instead of distinct lines 
being given in the creation of counties a stated territory was described as 
so many miles west, so many miles south, etc., the point of beginning being 
the main channel of the Kansas or Kaw river at the point where the main 
channel crosses the Missouri line. The proslavery legislature of 1855 cre- 
ated thirty-five counties in what is now Kansas, and the county of Arapahoe 
in what is now Colorado. The act said that when the surveys were com- 
pleted the nearest township, section or subdividing line should be the boun- 
dary. The counties established by the first act extended only to the west 
line of Marshall, Riley and Geary. In a separate act the counties of Marion 
and Washington were established. Marion was a narrow strip extending 
from about the south line of the present Dickinson county to the south line 
of the state. Washington extended from about the middle of Sumner to 
the east line of Las Animas county, Colorado. Arapahoe county covered 
the Rocky Mountains region, and extended east to the one hundred and third 
meridian, or a few miles east of the west line of Kit Carson county, Colo- 
rado, or to the east line of New Mexico extended north. This left all the 
region west of Marshall county and north of the south line of the present 
Wallace and Logan counties under the vague description "all the territory 
west of Marshall and east of Arapahoe."^ The county lines were made re- 
gardless of routes of travel, and subsequent development made lots of 
trouble readjusting counties to suit ambitious cities. The channel of the 
Kansas river would not answer, so we had Wyandotte taken from Leav- 
enworth and Johnson, Douglas and Shawnee pieced out from Jefferson and 
Jackson, and Riley had to be shifted greatly to suit Manhattan, i^ 

October 6, 1856, a few men connected with Fort Riley held an election 
at Sycamore creek (now Chapman creek, in Dickinson county), and voted 
for all the region between Marshall and Arapahoe, nearly 300 miles in ex- 
tent, and elected Benjamin F. Simmons to the legislature. There were thir- 
teen votes cast, ten being cast for Simmons. '« The record shows that 
Simmons served through the entire session of the proslavery legislature of 
January, 1857, and was chairman of the committee on corporations. The 
ten votes he received at Sycamore were the total cast for him. P. Z. Taylor, 
a clerk of that election, still lives in Denver. The Historical Society has 
the poll list of this election. This region, as well as Arapahoe county, was 
attached to Marshall county by the legislature of 1855 for civil and military 
purposes. 

In 1859 the legislature established the counties of Montana, El Paso, 
Oro, Broderick and Fremont out of the west end of Arapahoe, leaving this 
last-named county on the great plains. The names Broderick and Fremont 
indicate that a different sentiment was in charge of affairs. Of the coun- 
ties thus established but three remain in the state of Colorado— Fremont, 
El Paso and Arapahoe. 

Note 15. — Kan. Hist. Coll.. vol. 8, p. 449. "Establishment of Counties in Kansas " by Miss 
Helen G. Gill. 

Note 16.— Archives Department, 324, accession number 110. 



10 Kansas State Historical Society. 

All of this territory south of the south line of Wallace and Logan and 
between Marion and Arapahoe was named Peketon by the legislature of 
1860. At the same session the legislature began to encroach on the terri- 
tory north of the Smoky Hill river, by the organization of the counties of 
Republic, Shirley (now Cloud), Ottawa and Saline. In 1867 counties were 
created as far west as Norton, Graham, Trego and Ford. 

The legislature of 1868 reached the state line, and established Wallace 
and Gove counties. Cheyenne and Sherman were created by the legislature 
of 1873. Thirteen years later, or in 1886, the county of Sherman organized 
for business — thirty-two years after the creation of the territory and 
twenty-five years after the admission of the state. 

The region known as Peketon was not disturbed until the state legislature 
of 1867, when the counties of McPheraon, Sedgwick and Sumner, and all as 
far west as Ford and Hodgeman, were created. The counties were organized 
to the west line of the state in 1889, when Greeley, the last county, was 
ready for business— thirty-five years after the creation of the territory and 
twenty-eight years after statehood. 

So much for the territory of Kansas. How about the state of Kansas? 

After the creation of the territory, and prior to statehood, Kansas had 
four constitutional conventions. The Topeka convention of October, 1855, 
the Lecompton convention of September, 1857, and the Leavenworth conven- 
tion of March, 1858, each accepted the boundaries established in the organic 
act of May 30, 1854, extending the proposed state westward to the summit 
of the Rocky Mountains. 

The Wyandotte convention, the fourth and last before the admission of 
the state, fixed the present boundary of Kansas at 102 degrees west longi- 
tude from Greenwich, or, as stated in our constitution, the twenty-fifth 
meridian west from Washington. At a geodetic congress held in Wash- 
ington in 1884, composed of scientific representatives from all the countries 
of the world, it was resolved to adopt the meridian of Greenwich as the 
universal prime or first meridian. The Encyclopedia Americana says that 
geographers of all countries reckon longitude from the meridian of Green- 
wich, although local geography of many countries may be reckoned from 
their respective capitals. Sadlier's geography says: "We measure longi- 
tude from the meridian of Greenwich, and the meridian of Washington." 
Colton's geography says : "Longitude is sometimes reckoned in the United 
States from Washington, and in France from Paris." The west boundary 
runs three miles west of the twenty-fifth meridian, or 102 degrees, which is 
explained by the fact that after the adoption of the constitution the survey- 
ors in running the eastern line of an Indian reservation in Colorado estab- 
lished the west line of Kansas, and made an error of three miles beyond the 
meridian named as our western boundary, so that it is really 102° 2' west 
from Greenwich. 

William Hutchinson, chairman of the committee on preamble and bill of 
rights, reported on July 15 the present boundaries for Kansas as adopted by 
the committee. A prolonged discussion was closed the next afternoon by a 
vote in committee of the whole, placing the western boundary at the one- 
hundredth meridian,'" a line about six miles west of Hill City, in Graham 
county. On July 28, the day before the final adjournment, Caleb May, of 

Note 17.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention : Proceeding-s and Debates, p. 172. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 11 

Atchison, proposed to amend the clause by making the twenty-sixth merid- 
ian, or 103 degrees west longitude, the line,^* which would be a northern 
extension of the east line of New Mexico or about the west line of Kit Car- 
son county, Colorado. After some discussion May was prevailed upon to 
change his motion to the original recommendation of the committee, and 
our present western boundary was fixed by a unanimous vote. The discus- 
sion on this point during the sultry days of July 15 and 16, 1859, are inter- 
esting, and I make a few extracts to show in what estimation western Kansas 
was then held. 

William C. McDowell, of Leavenworth, who seems to have fathered the 
South Platte annexation, says;!" "I would inquire whether the boundaries 
given here are the same as those in the organic act? " 

Mr. Hutchinson: "They are the same, except the western; . . . 
after diligent inquiry it was ascertained that the one-hundredth meridian 
west ( Hill City and Fort Dodge) would be in a country which is at present 
being settled ; the one-hundred and first (at Atwood, Colby, Scott, Garden 
City and Liberal) will probably be settled, but at the one hundred and sec- 
ond degree, or twenty-five degrees west from the boundary, it was believed 
was placed upon a natural sandy divide, where no part of the population 
would be cut off that wanted to be with us." 

James Blood objected to an amendment making the twenty-fourth merid- 
ian west from Washington, corresponding to the one hundred and first west 
from Greenwich, the western boundary (the ongitude of Colby, Scott and 
Garden City), saying: "I would prefer the twenty-fifth (our present bound- 
ary), and if gentlemen will make a calculation they will find that it is not 
extending our state unreasonably in that direction— about 400 miles. The 
country out there will not be settled for a long time, and is not of much 
particular value. I think the proposition is a fair one as submitted by the 
committee." 

Solon O. Thacher^o understood "that a large portion of this western 
region from the twenty-third (Hill City) or twenty-fourth (Colby and Gar- 
den City) is a miserable, uninhabited region. The only question is whether 
we shall include within our boundaries a tract of country that is not valuable 
to us, and confer upon it the benefits of government at our^expense. Those 
of us who have read Horace Greeley's letters from that region, and con- 
versed with gentlemen who have been there, are of the opinion that that 
portion of the territory is not at all inviting." 

Mr. Hutchinson remarked that "it is simply a question of fact as to how 
far west this section of country can be inhabited— how far there is timber, 
water and grass. It is evident that if we place it at the twenty-third (Hill 
City) or twenty-fourth meridian (three miles west of Colby), that we shall 
cut off a population that will be greatly discommoded at some future day to 
travel to meet settlements near the Rocky Mountains. That should be the 
governing influence in giving the direction of our vote. We are expecting 
a grant of land from Congress. That will call for alternate sections, in all 
probability ; so the further westward our boundary shall go the greater the 
number of acres of land we shall get. If it is uninhabited entirely it will 

Note 18. — Wyandotte Constitutional Convention : Proceedingrs and Depates, p. 409. 
Note 19.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention : Proceedings and Debates, p. 139. 
Note 20. — Wyandotte Constitutional Convention ; Proceedings and Debates, p. 141. 



12 



Kansas State Historical Society. 




JOHN TAYLOR BURRIS, 

Olathe, Kan. 

Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859 



SAMUEL E. HOFFMAN, 

St. Louis, Mo. 

Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859 



never be worth a dollar ; we have nothing to pay on it— we have neither to 
pay taxes on it nor build fences around it. There is no loss, and I think 
there is no gain." 

Samuel D. Houston, of Riley county, who favored the summit of the 
Rocky Mountains and also the Platte river, said: "There are arguments in 
favor of extending our boundary westward; and I should be recreant to my 
duty were I not to present these arguments. ... I have learned for 
the first time, and with astonishment, of ... a move by the people in 
defining their boundaries [in which] they were benevolent enough to give 
away one-half their territory. . . . Were we to do it as individuals we 
would be charged with insanity. ... If we can get the boundary desig- 
nated by Congress in the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and get a road to the moun- 
tains, I ask if it is not a question of some magnitude whether Kansas shall 
not have the grand Pacific railroad of the country. You must go to the 
mountains and get pine with which to fence and build on your beautiful 
prairies ; but if you give away your pineries and give those thoroughfares 
into the control of other people, how are you going to accomplish this? 
. . . I believe what I propose is for the best interests of the whole terri- 
tory of Kansas." 

Mr. McDowell objected to incorporating the mining regions, "their dif- 
ference of pursuits presenting a people not homogeneous, whose wants will 
be different and very little in common with ours." 

James G. Blunt proposed again the twenty-third meridian, the Hill City 
line, and saidi^i "We would then embrace all of the desirable territory 

Note 21.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention : Proceedings and Debates, p. 153. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 13 

upon this side of that large, sterile plain situated on our west, that would 
add neither wealth nor importance to our state, but over which to extend 
our laws and protection would be an onerous burden." 

B. Wrigley, of Doniphan county, said:-^ "You put the western bound- 
ary upon the twenty- third meridian (Hill City and Fort Dodge); and you 
have on the eastern side the agricultural district of Kansas, and you have 
on the west an expanse of territory of equal width and of equal extent^ 
barren, sterile and unfit for agricultural purposes." 

Mr. Houston: " Why, gentlemen, we want . . . a connection of this 
sort that we might get the highest possible price for our products. . . . 
One would suppose from what gentlemen say of the country that it was a 
God-forsaken desert; that the lightnings of heaven had poured their streams 
of death upon it for centuries. But what are the facts? Almost everyone 
that goes out there tells us that it is covered with immense herds of buffalo 
as far as the eye can reach, over a vast extent— north, south, east and west. 
I believe I have as much respect for the buffaloes' opinion as I have for the 
gentlemen's here in regard to that country. Who ever heard of wild ani- 
mals seeking a home that is perfectly barren? Why, the grass must be 
extremely nutritious there. -^ I believe that cotton can be raised on these 
plains that will supply the demand of the whole country. When we get a 
railroad out there, can't you tax these herds? When you run a railroad out 
there, let men make a business of herding. You know very little about that 
country. . . . One gentleman remarked to me a short time since that 
he had written hundreds of letters to the East, telling them to come on 
here; that we wanted to make a pathway to the Rocky Mountains over this 
very country we are now proposing to give away. I would keep it till we 
found out all about it. Who ever heard of a man cutting off part of his 
farm before he had examined it? Now, gentlemen, this territory may be 
too large for certain schemes of partisanship, but it is not too large to make 
a grand and a glorious state for the people, and for the interests of the 
people." 

There is an incident relating to the north boundary line of the state of 
Kansas scarcely known in her history, but in the history of the twin state 
of Nebraska it constitutes a very important chapter. 

January 17, 1856, ^^ J. Sterling Morton introduced into the lower house of 
the territorial legislature of Nebraska a resolution memorializing Congress 
to annex to Kansas all that portion of Nebraska south of the Platte river, 
because it would be "to the interests of this territory and to the general 
good of the entire Union." It was stated that the Platte river was a natural 
boundary mark— that it was impossible to either ford, ferry or bridge it; it 
was further thought that such a move would effectually prevent the estab- 

Note 22.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention : Proceedings and Debates, p. 157. 

Note 23.— The year 1909 was theforty-ninthyearof statehood. There were sixty-three coun- 
ties in the state which this year produced from 1.000.000 to 4.000.000 bushels of corn each, and 
there were thirty-one counties that produced from 1,000,000 to 3,000.000 bushels of wheat. 
Twenty-four counties in the line with Ellsworth, or west of that range of counties, produced 
from 1,000,000 to 4.000.000 bushels of corn each, or from 1,000,000 to 3,000.000 bushels of wheat 
each. The 4,000,000-bushel corn counties and two of the 3,000,000-bushel wheat counties are in 
the west half of the state— Sumner, Barton and Reno. All the other counties in the west half of 
the state produced proportionately, according to their population and development. Jewell 
county, belonging to the west half of the state, this year raised 3,546,558 bushels of corn, and 
twice since settlement has taken a prize as the ranking corn county in the state. 

Note 24.— Morton's Illustrated History of Nebraska, vol. 1, p. 396. 



14 Kansas State Historical Society. 

lishment of slavery in either of the territories. This was postponed by a 
vote of twenty to five. The project slumbered until 1858. There was great 
bitterness between north and south Nebraska at the time, and the annexa- 
tion sentiment seemed to grow. 

In those days Nebraska had other troubles than the unreliability of the 
Platte river. Kansas was torn in pieces by a great national issue, and our 
Republican-Populist war of 1893 had a precedent for ridiculousness in the 
controversy which divided the pioneers of Nebraska from 1855 to 1858. 
Florence, Omaha, Plattsmouth, Bellevue and Nebraska City were contestants 
for the territorial capital. The story reads like a southwest Kansas county- 
seat fight. The first legislature was called at Omaha, January 16, 1855. 
Omaha was full of people interested in rival towns, who made threats that 
the session should not be held. In January, 1857, the antagonism to Omaha 
assumed an aggressive character. A bill passed both houses of the legisla- 
ture, moving the session to a place called Douglas, in Lancaster county. 
This bill was vetoed by the governor. In 1858 a portion of the legislature 
seceded in a small riot but no bloodshed, and attempted to do business at a 
town called Florence. -^ September 21, 1858, the fifth session met in peace 
at Omaha, and began to talk about bridging the Platte. -'^ 

Restlessness was common then, for the Kansas territorial legislature 
was also hard to please. The proslavery people left Pawnee to sit in 
Shawnee Mission, and the Free-soilers would not remain at Lecompton, 
but in 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861 moved to Lawrence. 

About the beginning of the year 1859 several mass meetings were held, 
and Congress was memorialized to incorporate the South Platte country in 
the proposed state of Kansas. There was some dissent, of course, but the 
annexationists seem to have been quite lively. On the 2d of May^' a mass 
meeting was held at Nebraska City, which invited the people to participate 
in the formation of a constitution at Wyandotte July 5, reciting "that the 
pestiferous Platte should be the northern boundary of a great agricultural 
and commercial state. " They ordained that an election should be held in 
the several South Platte counties June 7. There are no results of the elec- 
tion given, but Morton's History of Nebraska, page 401, volume I, says 
that in the county of Otoe, of 1078 ballots cast at a previous election, 900 
electors signed a petition for annexation, and that this sentiment was rep- 
resentative of the whole South Platte district. Governor Medary's son and 
private secretary, on the 16th of May, 1859, had written a letter to the Ne- 
braska people, urging them to elect delegates to the Wyandotte convention, 
and to proceed quietly, "as it would only create an unnecessary issue in 
southern Kansas at the time, were it freely talked of." 

On the 12th day of July, 1859,-8 the following Nebraska men were ad- 
mitted to seats on the floor of the Wyandotte constitutional convention 
then in session, as honorary members with the privilege of participating in 
the discussion of the northern boundary of the state of Kansas, but not to 

NoTK 25.— Morton's Illustrated History of Nebraska, vol. 1, pp. 322. 326. 

Note 26.-Ibid. pp. 322. 360. Note 27.— Ibid. pp. 400. 405. 

Note 28. — Wyandotte Constitutional Convention: Proceedingrs and Debates, p. 23. The 
names of the Nebraska delegation as here given are corrected by Mr. Morton in his Illustrated 
History of Nebraska, p. 402. and Mr. Clarence S. Paine, secretary of the Nebraska Historical So- 
ciety has made still other changes. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 15 

vote : Stephen F. Nuckolls, Mills S. Reeves, Robert W. Furnas, Obadiah 

B. Hevv^ett, Wm. W. Keeling, Samuel A. Chambers, Wm. H. Taylor, 

Niles, [Geo. H. Nixon], John H. Croxton, John H. Cheever, John B. Bennet, 
Jacob Dawson, and (?) Wm. P. Loan. In the archives of the State Histori- 
cal Society we find the original application of the Nebraska people signed 
by Mills S. Reeves, John B. Bennet, Wm. H. Taylor, Samuel A. Chambers, 
and Stephen B. Miles. 

On the 15th the Nebraska delegates were heard, and on the 16th, during 
the consideration of the west boundary line of the state of Kansas, William 

C. McDowell, of Leavenworth, a Democratic member, moved the following 
amendment : -* 

^'Provided, however, That if the people of southern Nebraska, embraced 
between Platte river and the northern boundary of Kansas as established by 
Congress, agree to the same, a vote is to be taken by them, both upon the 
question of boundary and upon this constitution, at the time this constitution 
is submitted to the people of Kansas, and provided Congress agree to the 
same the boundaries of the state of Kansas shall be as follows : 'Beginning 
at a point on the western boundary of the state of Missouri where the thirty- 
seventh parallel of north latitude crosses the same ; thence west with said 
parallel to the twenty-fourth meridian of longitude west from Washington ; 
thence north with said meridian to the middle of the south fork of the Platte 
river ; thence following the main channel of said river to the middle of the 
Missouri river ; thence with the middle of the Missouri river to the mouth of 
the Kansas river ; thence south on the western boundary line of the state of 
Missouri to the place of beginning.' " 

After a short parliamentary wrangle about separating the north and 
west lines, Mr. McDowell withdrew the amendment, and the" convention 
voted that the northern boundary remain unchanged. 

The Nebraska City News, the organ of the South Platte sentiment, was 
furious over the result. I quoted" : "The curious may wish to know why 
this rich boon was refused by the Black Republican constitutional conven- 
tion of Kansas. It was for this reason : Its acquisition, it was believed by 
those worthies, would operate against their party. They said South Platte 
Nebraska was Democratic, and that being added to northern Kansas, which 
is largely Democratic, would make Kansas a Democratic state ; would de- 
prive the Black Republican party of two United States senators, a congress- 
man and other oflfices. They were dragooned into this position, too, by the 
Republican party outside of Kansas. Kansas, they are determined at all 
hazards, shall be an abolition state." 

It was a great deal, amid the sentiment and passion of that hour, to ask 
the Free-soilers in the Wyandotte convention, following the struggles of the 
border as far south as Fort Scott from 1855 to 1860, to go back on the people 
south of the Kaw for an unknown quantity in southern Nebraska. The 
delegates from Nebraska offered great things in a material way, but politics 
cropped out everywhere, principally from outside of Kansas. There was no 
politics then but the slavery issue. Solon 0. Thacher said: '^ "Chief among 
their arguments was one meeting an objection which they supposed would 
be raised in consequence of the political character of the country proposed 
to be annexed; and we have been invoked by all the powers of logic and 

Note 29.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention : Proceedings and Debates, p. 140. 

Note 30.— Morton's Illustrated History of Nebraska, vol. 1, p. 403. 

Note 31.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention: Proceedings and Debates, p. 147. 



16 Kansas State Historical Society. 

rhetoric to ignore the political aspect of this case— to lay aside whatever 
feelings might arise politically, and look at the question dispassionately. 
Now, sir, I say they urge an impossibility. Had these gentlemen from 
southern Nebraska seen the sky lurid with the flames of their burning 
homes, the soil of these beautiful prairies crimson with the blood of their 
brothers and fathers, or their wives and children flying over the land for a 
place of refuge from crime and outrage, . . . they would not think of 
making such an appeal to us. . . , Gentlemen must remember that this 
is the first time in the history of Kansas that southern Kansas has been 
represented in any deliberative body. Think you, sir, that the people who 
have just escaped from a prisonhouse that has kept them so long can desire 
to reenter the clammy dungeon?" 

I have carefully looked through the files of several of the Kansas news- 
papers of that period, and I find a singular indifference to the question of 
annexation. The Topeka Tribune and the Leavenworth Herald very freely 
supported it. The Lawrence Republican, T. Dwight Thacher's paper, was 
strongly opposed to it. There was little else considered then aside from 
slavery. The Lecompton Democrat favored the dismemberment of both 
Kansas and Nebraska and the formation of a new state lying between Kan- 
sas and the Platte rivers. The Republican of July '^1, 1859, said this scheme 
was hatched in Washington and nursed in the Blue Lodges of Missouri. 
Annexation would make southern Kansas a mere appendage to the northern 
part of the state and completely at its mercy. The editor of the Republican 
made a visit to southeastern Kansas, and in his issue of July 14 reported 
unanimous opposition to the movement ; that the people there neither cared 
to be annexed nor knew the politics of the Nebraska men. A portion of 
the Nebraska movement was to make another state south of Kansas river 
to be called Neosho. 32 In a speech before the convention, July 22, Solon 0. 
Thacher said that three-fifths of the population of Kansas was south of the 
Kansas river. The Platte gave no river frontage, and would need an ap- 
propriation every year to make it navigable by catfish and polliwogs,'3 
and the movement would give Kansas three additional Missouri river coun- 
ties north of the Kansas river, which would not be desirable. A singular 
feature is that the Free-soil legislature of 1859 petitioned for annexation, ^'^ 
while Free-soilers in the constitutional convention bitterly opposed it. The 
Lawrence Republican is the only paper that handled the subject with vigor. 
I quote as follows from the issue of June 16, 1859 : 

"The proposed measure, if accomplished, would destroy the community 
of interests which now exists between the various portions of Kansas. 
Our people are bound together as the people of no other new state ever 
were. Together they have gone through one of the darkest and bloodiest 
struggles for freedom that any people ever encountered ; together they have 
achieved the most significant and far-reaching victory since the Revolution; 
together they have suffered— together triumphed ! At this late day. after 
the battle has been fought and won, and we are about to enter upon the 
enjoyment of the fruits of our perilous labors, we do not care to have intro- 
duced into our household a set of strangers who have had no community of 
interest with us in the past, who have hardly granted us the poor boon of 
their sympathy, and who even now speak of the thrice honored and loved 

Note 32.— Lawrence Republican, July 21. 1859. 

Note 33.-Ibid. July 28, 1859. 

Note 34.— General Laws Kansas Territory, 1859, p. 651. Joint resolution No. 3. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 



17 



name of Kansas as a 'name which is but the synonym of crime and blood!' " 
(Extract from a Nebraska City paper.) 

On the 23d of July McDowell renewed the subject in the Wyandotte con- 
vention by the following resolution :35 

"Resolved, That Congress be memorialized to include within the limits 
of the state of Kansas that part of southern Nebraska lying between the 
northern boundary of the territory of Kansas and the Platte river." 

This was defeated on the same day by a vote of nineteen for and twenty- 
nine against. The Democrats refused to sign the constitution, and of those 
who did sign, four— S. D. Houston, J. A. Middleton, L. R. Palmer and 
R. J. Porter— voted to annex the South Platte country. 




ROBERT COLE FOSTER, 

Denison, Tex. 

Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859 

Died January 6, 1910. 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SIMPSON, 

Paola, Kan. 

Wyandotte Constitutional Convention, 1859 



Senator Green, of Missouri, in opposing the admission of Kansas under 
the Wyandotte constitution, said that not over three-eighths of Kansas 
could be cultivated, that "without this addition (South Nebraska) Kansas 
must be weak, puerile, sickly, in debt, and at no time capable of sustaining 
herself." 

In the United States Senate on January 18, 1861, he moved to strike out 
the proposed boundaries of Kansas and insert the following :*« 

"Beginning in the main channel of the North Fork of the Platte river, 
at a point where the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washing- 
ton crosses the same; thence down and along said channel to its junction 

Note 35.— Wyandotte Constitutional Convention: Proceedings and Debates, p. 276. 
Note 86.— Congressional Globe, 2d Sess., 36th Cong , p. 444. 



18 Kansas State Historical Society. 

with the main stream of the Platte; thence down and along the main chan- 
nel of the Platte to the Missouri river; thence south along said river and 
the western boundary of the state of Missouri to the northern boundary of 
the Cherokee neutral land; thence west along said northern boundary, the 
northern boundary of the Osage lands, and the prolongation of the same, to 
the twenty-fifth meridian of longitude west from Washington; thence north 
on said meridian to the place of beginning." 

This was defeated by a vote of twenty-three yeas to thirty-one nays, a 
greater number of the yeas being those who opposed the admission of Kan- 
sas under any circumstances. In support of this proposition Senator Green 
said: 3' 

"It will be observed by an examination of the constitution adopted at 
Wyandotte, now pending before the senate, that about one-third of the ter- 
ritory of Kansas is cut off on the west. That includes the Pike's Peak 
region, where the first gold discovery was made, including the Gregory 
mines, and so on, cutting off that space of territory, which none of the other 
constitutions ever did. Owing to the character of the country, that reduces 
it to a small compass to constitute a good state. The gross area is about 
eighty thousand square miles; but the portion susceptible of settlement and 
of habitation will not exceed forty thousand ; and the best authority I have 
reduces it to thirty thousand out of eighty thousand square miles. After 
we pass west of the Missouri river, except upon a few streams, there is no 
territory fit for settlement or habitation. It is unproductive. It is like a 
barren waste. '" It will not even support cattle, or sheep, or anything per- 
taining to the grazing business. There are no mineral resources in the state 
to supply any want of agricultural resources. Hence, I propose to enlarge 
the boundary, not upon the west, but to take the present western boundary 
and prolong it northerly up to the Platte river, and then follow the line of 
the river to its junction with the Missouri line, and follow the Missouri line 
down. It will add to the territory about thirty thousand square miles, about 
two-thirds of which will be susceptible of settlement. It will then make a 
good, strong, substantial state. I have the privilege to state, in this con- 

NoTE 37.— Total value of Kansas agricultural products for 1909, the forty- 
ninth year of statehood $307,538,164 91 

Live stock on hand 225,147,080 00 



$532,685,244 91 
Assessed valuation of the state for 1909, the forty-ninth year of statehood $2,511,260,285 26 

The year-book for 1909 of the United States Department of Agriculture, says that Kansas in 
the last ten years has been first in wheat, and fifth in corn in 1909. Kansas was first in alfalfa, 
also last year this state stepped in fourth place on the number of horses, and seventh place in 
the number of hogs produced F. D. Coburn, secretary of the Board of Agriculture, has been 
compiling some figures about Kansas crops and the same crops in other states. The government 
figures also show that in the last ten years Kansas produced 770 million bushels of wheat while 
its nearest competitor produced 708 million bushels. This was Minnesota. Kansas was third in 
1909, but in nearly all the other years it was first. In the ten years Kansas produced 1608 million 
bushels of corn which gives it fifth place in that period. Illinois is first; Iowa, second; Nebraska, 
third, and Missouri fourth. 

November 16. 1909, there were in Kansas 248 national banks. 825 state banks, 4 private banks 
and 3 trust companies. These institutions held deposits on that date as follows: State banks, 
$99,507,000: national, $84,448,908; a total of $183,955,908. January 31, 1910, the close of the 49th year 
of statehood, the deposits were: State $99,505,213; national, $89,841,068; a total of $189,841,281, an 
increase of $5,390,373. 

W. A. L. Johnson, commissioner of Labor and Industry for the state of Kansas, makes the 
following comparative statement for the ten-year period ending June 30, 1909 : 

1900. 

Capital invested 59,458,256 

Number of salaried officials, clerks 3,612 

Salaries $3,123,221 

Average number of wage earners 27,119 

Total wages of year $12,197,657 

Cost of material used 120,737,677 

Value of products, including custom and repair work 154,008,544 

See "A History of Manufactures in the Kansas District" elsewhere in this volume, covering 
coal, zinc, lead, salt, tile, oil, brick, and cement. 

P. H. Albright, in the Winfield Courier, Christmas, 1909: "The population of Kansas, in 
round numbers, at this time is about 1,700,000. If our population were as dense as Rhode 





Increase 


1909. 


per cent. 


141,354,677 


137.7 


6,148 


70.2 


$6,098,368 


95.3 


51,628 


90.4 


$31,338,827 


165.1 


201,321,0% 


66.9 


264,133,757 


71.5 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 19 

nection, that nine-tenths of the people south of the Platte, in what is now 
called Nebraska, desire this annexation to Kansas." 

In the further discussion of the bill for admission, Stephen A. Douglas, 
January 19, 1861, summed up the trouble as follows: 

"There is no necessity for delaying this bill as it would be delayed by 
the adoption of the amendment. The senator from Missouri well knows 
that this Kansas question has been here for years, and no consideration on 
earth could suffice to stop it in this body three years ago, when it came under 
the Lecompton constitution. It was not stopped then to be amended for the 
want of judiciary or any other clauses; but it was forced through. We are 
told, first, that Kansas must be kept out because her northern boundary is 
not right, when it is the same now as it was then; next, that she must be 
kept out because the southern boundary is not right, though it is the same 
now as it was then; again, she must be kept out because of the Indian 
treaties, though the same objections existed then as now; again, she must 
be kept out because she has not population enough, though she has three 
times as many people as were there then; and, finally, this bill must be de- 
layed now because it does not contain a judiciary clause. I do not under- 
stand why these constant objections are being interposed to the admission 
of Kansas now, when none of them were presented in regard to the Lecomp- 
ton constitution, three years ago, nor in regard to the admission of Oregon, 
which has since taken place. It seems to me that the fate of Kansas is a 
hard one; and it is necessary for these senators to explain why they make 
the distinction in their action between Kansas and Oregon, instead of my 
explaining why I do not make the distinction between them. "^^ 

July 22, 1882, a reunion of the members of the constitutional convention 
was held at Wyandotte. Benjamin F. Simpson and John A. Martin made 
speeches. Martin was secretary of the convention, and afterwards served 
as colonel of the Eighth Kansas, and two terms as governor. He said in 
his address that two influences induced the decision against the South Platte, 
"one political and the other local and material. Many Republicans feared 
that the South Platte country was, or would be likely to become. Demo- 
cratic. Lawrence and Topeka both aspired to be the state capital, and 
their influence was against annexation, because they feared it would throw 
the center of population far north of the Kaw. "^^ ^g quote: 

"Each party, I think, was guilty of one blunder it afterwards seriously 
regretted— the Republicans in refusing to include the South Platte country 

Island at this time we would have about thirty-eight million; as dense as Massachusetts, we 
would have thirty-four million: as dense as New Jersey we would have twenty-five million; as 
dense as Connecticut we would have eighteen million; as dense as Pennsylvania we would have 
fourteen million; as dense as Maryland we would have twelve million; as dense as Ohio we would 
have ten million; as dense as Illinois we would have nine million, and as Indiana we would have 
six and a half million. The population of Rhode Island is now 470 to the square mile; of Massa- 
chusetts 420 to the square mile; of New Jersey, 300 to the square mile; others of the extreme 
eastern states are following close in the wake, while the population of Kansas to the 
square mile is but 20. If we go to the European countries, the most densely populated is Belgium, 
with a population of 565 to the square mile; England the next, with a population of 500 to the 
square mile; Italy with a population of 280 to the square mile; Germany with a population of 238 
to the square mile; Austria with a population of 208 to the square mile, and France with a popu- 
lation of 186 to the square mile. ... It has been demonstrated that sufficient food can be 
produced on five acres of Kansas land to support a family of ten; or, in other words, one acre of 
very rich land will support two people. It is not an extravagant thing to say that the fifty mil- 
lion acres of land which Kansas contains will support a population of twenty million people. 
. . . Those living to-day. who have not yet attained to the age of majority, will likely see a 
population in Kansas more dense than it is at the present time in the state of Ohio, and this 
would mean a population of eight million people." 

In an address to the Kansas Club. New York, January 29, 1910. David J. Brewer, associate 
justice of the supreme court of the United States, made the statement that in looking through 
some old papers recently, he came across a life insurance policy which he carried in 1864, while 
living at Leavenworth, vv^ich was indorsed thus : " Permission to live in Kansas granted." 

Note 38.— Congressional Globe, 2d Sess., 36th Cong., p. 466. 

Note 39.— Martin's Addresses, p. 25. 



20 Kansas State Historical Society, 

within the boundaries of Kansas; the Democrats in refusing to sign the con- 
stitution they had labored diligently to perfect. I speak of what I consider 
the great mistake of the Republicans with all the more frankness, because 
I was at the time in hearty sympathy with their action; but I feel confident 
that no Republican member is living to day who does not deplore that de- 
cision. And I am equally confident that within a brief time after the con- 
vention adjourned there were few Democratic members who did not seriously 
regret their refusal to sign the constitution." 

I think the judgment of the people to-day would be that the convention 
did very well; that for homogeneousness of people and interests, the boun- 
dary lines of Kansas encompass, encircle, surround and hold more content- 
ment and happiness than any other equal extent of territory. Imagine a 
northern boundary line as crooked as the Platte river, and a southern 
boundary as crooked as the Kansas and Smoky Hill. Imagine what an un- 
wieldy and incongruous lot of people and territory there would be from the 
Platte to the south line of Kansas, and from the Missouri river to the sum- 
mit of the Rocky Mountains. Fifty years of development and history show 
that the convention made the state just right. Furthermore, we have never 
heard of any unsatisfactory results from the shape of Nebraska, nor of any 
failure on the part of Nebraska people to manage the Platte river. I think 
that the Wyandotte convention, after fifty years, is entitled to the plaudit, 
"Well done, good and faithful servants." When we recall that Kansas is 
one of but twelve states in the Union that has lived under one constitution 
fifty years, the Wyandotte convention surely has this approbation. 

The following states have had their present constitutions in use for fifty 
years or more, barring amendments from time to time submitted to the 
people: Connecticut, since 1818; Delaware, 1831; Indiana, 1851; Iowa, 1857; 
Kansas, 1859; Maine, 1819; Massachusetts, 1820; Minnesota, 1857; Ohio, 1851; 
Oregon, 1857; Rhode Island, 1842; Wisconsin, 1848. In all of these, prac- 
tically, there has been agitation looking toward constitutional revision, and 
in some instances constitutional conventions have met and revised the con- 
stitutions, but the revision has been rejected by the people. For nearly 200 
years Rhode Island did business under her charter, obtained from Charles II 
in 1663, and it was not until September, 1842, that a constitutional conven- 
tion met and framed a constitution, which was ratified by the people of that 
state. 

Of the members of the Wyandotte convention there still remain with us: 
John T. Burris, of Olathe, aged 81 years; Benjamin F. Simpson, of Paola, 
aged 73 years; C. B. McClellan, of Oskaloosa, aged 87 years; S. D. Houston, 
of Salina, aged 91 years; Samuel E. Hoffman, 4450 Westminster Place, St, 
Louis, Mo., aged 75 years; and Robert Cole Foster, of Denison, Tex., aged 
74 years. Their work was adopted by the people of the territory October 4, 
1859, by a vote of 10,421 for to 5530 against. [ Samuel D. Houston died Feb- 
ruary 28, 1910, and Robert Cole Foster died January 6, 1910.] 

In 1855 the territorial legislature of Kansas was in session at Shawnee 
Mission, only six miles from the now center of Kansas City, Mo., and the 
Missouri legislature was in session at Jefferson City. In a sketch of Kansas 
City, Mo., published by Judge H. C. McDougall in 1898, ^o he says that "As 
one of the many evidences of the fatherly interest which the citizens of 
Missouri then had in the young territory of Kansas, it may be noted in pass- 

NoTE 40.— Charter and Revised Ordinances of Kansas City, Mo., p. xvi. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 21 

ing that Hon. Mobillion W. McGee, a citizen of this state, who then resided 
where Dr. J. Feld now lives, out at Westport, was a distinguished and no 
doubt useful member of that territorial legislature at Shawnee Mission. It 
would have been greatly to the interest of the proslavery party in Kansas 
to get Kansas City into that territory. The Missouri statesmen were then 
anxious to further the ends of their proslavery brethren in Kansas, and Col. 
Robert T. Van Horn, and a then distinguished citizen of the territory of 
Kansas (whose name I cannot mention because for thirty years he and his 
family have been warm personal friends of mine) , agreed that it would be a 
good thing all around to detach Kansas City from Missouri and attach it to 
Kansas territory. Hence, after visiting and conferring with the legislatures 
of Missouri and Kansas territory, and being thoroughly satisfied that the 
Kansas territorial legislature would ask and the Missouri legislature grant 
a cession upon the part of the latter to the former of all that territory lying 
west and north of the Big Blue river from the point at which it crosses the 
Kansas line out near Old Santa Fe to its mouth, Colonel Van Horn was left 
to look after the legislatures and my other venerable friend was posted off 
to Washington to get the consent of Congress to the cession. Congress was 
also at that time intensely proslavery, and through Senator David R. Atchi- 
son, Gen. B. F. Stringfellow and others, the Congressional consent to the 
desired change could easily have been obtained. While agreeing upon every- 
thing else as to the rise and fall of this scheme, yet Colonel Van Horn says 
that upon arriving at Washington, our Kansas friend met and fell in love 
with a lady with whom he took a trip to Europe, and was not heard from 
in these parts for over two years. " And that is how Kansas missed having 
one of the greatest cities to be on the continent. But there was then no 
ten-thousand-dollar front-foot land in those hills or timber. 

In 1879 there was again great interest in a movement on the part of 
Kansas City, Mo., for annexation. ^i The Kansas legislature passed a con- 
current resolution declaring that the citizens of Kansas were not opposed to 
such a movement, and authorized the appointment of a committee of eight, 
three from the senate and five from the house, to investigate the subject. 
A memorial- was presented to the legislature, signed by George M. Shelley, 
mayor of Kansas City, and three councilmen, and a committee of five citi- 
zens, in which it was said : "We assure your honorable body that our people 
are earnest and sincere in their desire for annexation, and should the ques- 
tion be submitted to the electors of the territory proposed to be annexed, it 
would be ratified by a virtually unanimous vote. Already a memorial to 
the Missouri legislature praying for such a submission of the question has 
been circulated and largely signed by our people, and will be duly presented 
by our representatives for the action of that honorable body." On the 7th 
of March a delegation of 125 representatives of the business and commer- 
cial interests of Kansas City visited Topeka. A great reception was held, 
and speeches were made by Governor St. John, Speaker Sidney Clarke, 

Note 41.— Senate concurrent resolution No. 6, introduced by T. B. Murdock, passed the 
senate January 21, 1879, and was concurred in by the house the next day, and the orig-inal 
manuscript is now in the files of the secretary of state. The Kansas City Times suggested the 
annexation movement in its issue of December 14, 1878, and January 1, 1879, gave a full front 
page to the subject, with map of the territory proposed to be annexed, and interviews with 
prominent citizens ; January 5 the Times printed Kansas and Missouri newspaper comments, 
and the issues of March 6, 7 and 8 devote considerable space to the visit of the Kansas City dele- 
gation to Topeka, and the reception and proceedings of the legislature. 

Note 42.— Kansas Legislature, 1879. House Journal, p. 1100. 



22 Kansas State Historical Society. 

Lieut. -gov. L. U. Humphrey and Col. D. S. Twitchell. The Kansas City 
guests further resolved: "That we are more than ever convinced of the 
great and mutual advantages that would accrue to Kansas City and Kansas 
from a more intimate union with the young Empire state." The Kansas 
City Times of March 7 published a map showing the change in the line de- 
sired by the people of that city. The proposed line followed the course of 
the Big Blue from a point on the state line near the southeast corner of 
Johnson county, running slightly east of north to the Missouri river, at this 
last point being about six miles east, comprising about sixty square miles of 
territory. It is highly probable the movement never reached Jefferson City. 
The Kansas legislature asked Congress to order a resurvey of this east line, 
and John R. Goodin introduced a bill, but nothing ever came of it. 

Verily "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how 
we will," as Mr. Shakespeare said. Charles Sumner thus described our 
situation." "The middle spot of North America, . . . calculated to 
nurture a powerful and generous people, worthy to be a central pivot of 
American institutions." William H. Seward said: ^^ "Kansas is the Cin- 
derella of the American family." Surely we were cuffed about like a 
household drudge, and now we are feeding and leading the world. Again, 
Seward said in Lawrence, September 26, I860:" "Men will come up to 
Kansas as they go up to Jerusalem. This shall be a sacred city." Henry 
Ward Beecher, whose Bibles and rifles are a part of our history, said:^« 
"There is no monument under heaven on which I would rather have my 
name inscribed than on this goodly state of Kansas." Abraham Lincoln, at 
Springfield, 111., June 27, 1857, said:^" "Look, Douglas, and see yonder 
people fleeing— see the full columns of brave men stopped— see the press 
and the type flying into the river— and tell me what does this ! It is your 
squatter sovereignty! Let slavery spread over the territories and God will 
sweep us with a brush of fire from this solid globe." At our quarter cen- 
tennial celebration, held in 1879, John W. Forney said:^** "If I had been 
commanded to choose one spot on the globe upon which to illustrate human 
development under the influence of absolute liberty, I could have chosen no 
part of God's footstool so interesting as Kansas. . . . Yesterday an in- 
fant, to-day a giant, to-morrow— who can tell?" 

These excerpts will show the inspiration under which Kansas was born. 
The character of the proposed state, her institutions, a high idea of public 
policy and morality, gave tone to all the discussion, marred only by a sus- 
picion on the part of some whether she could in a material sense maintain 
it all. 

And so the only trouble we have ever had about the boundary lines of 
Kansas has been from the people on the outside endeavoring to get in. 

Note 43.— Sumner's "Crime against Kansas," U. S. Senate, May 19. 1856. 

Note 44.— Seward's Works, new edition, vol. 4, p. 617. 

Note 45.-Ibid. p. 396. 

Note 46.- Wilder's Annals of Kansas," 1886, p. 1035. 

Note 47.-Ibid. p. 170. 

Note 48.— Old Settlers' meeting, Bismarck Grove, 1880. Kansas memorial, p. 36. 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 23 



THE EAST BOUNDARY LINE OF KANSAS. 

By William E. Connelley, in the Kansas City Journal. March 6, 1899. 

T NOTICE that the old controversy concerning the state line between the 
^ states of Kansas and Missouri has broken out afresh this winter. The 
Kansas legislature has been asked to appropriate the sum of $5000 to pay 
the expenses of a suit to settle the matter in the courts. Perhaps it would 
be as well that this be done. The result will settle nothing not already 
known to any person and every person having investigated the matter. 

In 1884 this matter was all threshed over. At that time many Kansans 
would consent to no less than six miles of Missouri territory. As investi- 
gation proceeded the claim narrowed until the foot of Broadway, in Kansas 
City, Mo., was fixed as the point beyond which no Kansan could honorably 
retreat. I was county clerk of Wyandotte county, Kansas, at that time, 
and an ardent supporter of the Kansas claim— until I made an investigation 
of the matter. In that year I made an accurate and correct map and plat 
of every tract of land in Wyandotte county, Kansas, and also prepared an 
accurate description of each tract, for the tax rolls of the county. It was 
necessary that I should locate definitely the state line. The map published 
herewith I have made from notes and information gathered by me at that 
time, and every figure of it can be verified by official records in the public 
oflRces in Wyandotte and Jackson counties, unless such records have since 
been lost or mislaid. These records are only certified copies of the original 
surveys of said counties, and the originals are on file in the General Land 
Oflfice of the United States. They may be inspected by any interested 
citizen. 

The west boundary line of the state of Missouri is the east boundary line 
of the state of Kansas. The boundaries' of the state of Missouri as they 
exist to-day were fixed by act of Congress, March 6, 1820. Said act de- 
scribes the western boundary of Missouri as follows: "... thence 
west along the same, to a point where the said parallel is intersected by a 
meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas river, 
where the same empties into the Missouri river." (Land Laws of the U. S. 
of a Local or Temporary Character, Washington, 1884, vol. 1, p. 418.) This 
"meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas 
river, where the same empties into the Missouri river," was surveyed and 
established in 1823 by Joseph C. Brown, and from that day to this has been 
recognized as the oflScial state line. 

After that date and during the progress of the public land surveys por- 
tions of the boundary line were retraced by John Lampton and other United 
States deputy surveyors, the old corners recognized and reestablished, and 
the lines of the public land surveys closed on the boundary line made by 
Joseph C. Brown. 

The oflficial plats of the public land surveys, both in Missouri and Kansas, 
show the connections with the mile monuments established in this survey 
of the boundary line as established by Joseph C. Brown in 1823. 

The public land surveys of Jackson county, Missouri, were commenced 
in 1818. The greater portion of the surveys were executed during the years 
1826 and 1827. Township 48 north, range 32 west, was surveyed in 1843, 
All the surveys along the state line were made prior to or during 1827. 



24 Kansas State Historical Society. 

Tlie corners of the township and the sections thereof were established on 
the "meridian line passing through the middle of the mouth of the Kansas 
river, where the same empties into the Missouri river," as established by 
Joseph C. Brown in 1823. These township and section corners are in ex- 
istence now. They are well known. The civil engineers and surveyors of 
both Jackson county, Missouri, and Wyandotte county, Kansas, have them 
definitely located, and use them in their work of surveying every week in 
the year, perhaps every day in the year. Remember, they were fixed and 
established prior to 1827. They are of record in the General Land Office of 
the United States, and certified copies of them are in the public offices of 
Jackson county, or were there when I was county clerk of Wyandotte 
county, Kansas. 

The only question that can arise which would affect the west boundary 
of Missouri would be that of the exact location of the "middle of the mouth 
of the Kansas river, where the same empties into the Missouri river," in 
1820. As no attempt was made to fix this point until 1823, the location 
made by Joseph C. Brown in that year must hold until it is conclusively 
shown that the mouth of the Kansas river was changed between the years 
1820 and 1823. No claim of this kind has ever been made. The mouth of 
the Kansas river, in some geologic age, passed now some thousands of cen- 
turies, evidently occupied all the space between the bluffs of Kansas City, 
Mo., and those of Kansas City, Kan. ; but the Missouri river then occupied 
all the space between the bluffs at Kansas City and those some miles north, 
in Clay county. If the Kansas river ever flowed into the Missouri at any 
point north of its present mouth it was long enough prior to 1823 to allow 
a forest of giant cottonwoods and sycamores to grow in its old bed before 
that date. The field notes and plats of the original surveys of that part of 
Jackson county along the state line showed the land to have been covered 
with heavy forest trees. They remained there until within the memory of 
persons still living. 

The mouth of the Kansas river was definitely and very accurately located 
in 1804. The following quotation is from the History of the Expedition un- 
der the command of Captains Lewis and Clark (edition of 1814, vol. 1, p. 
18) : "26th [June] . . . after nine and three-quarters miles we encamped 
at the upper point of the mouth of the river Kansas; here we remained two 
days, during which we made the necessary observations, recruited the party, 
and repaired the boat. The river Kansas takes its rise in the plains between 
the Arkansas and Platte rivers, and pursues a course generally east till its 
junction with the Missouri, which is in latitude 38°, 31', 13"; here it is 340^ 
yards wide, though it is wider a short distance above the mouth. The Mis- 
souri itself is about 500 yards in width; the point of union is low and subject 
to inundations for 250 yards, it then rises a little above high-water mark, 
and continues so as far back as the hills. On the south of the Kansas the 
hills or highlands come within one mile and a half of the river; on the north 
of the Missouri they do not approach nearer than several miles." 

Here is a description of the country about the mouth of the Kansas river 
which is not far from a good description at the present time. The field 
notes and plats of the original surveys of the lands of Jackson county about 
the mouth of the river show the distance to the bluffs to be about the same 
as given by Lewis and Clark. The claim that the Kansas river ever en- 
tered the Missouri near the present Union depot is here settled, by the 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 



25 




26 Kansas State Historical Society. 

language "rises a little above high- water mark, and continues so as far 
back as the hills." 

The contention that the mouth of the Kansas river was changed by the 
flood of 1844, and those following, cannot possibly affect the location of the 
state line even as established, for the reason that the line was established 
and fixed more than twenty years before the occurrence of the said flood; 
and for the further reason that it was not changed on account of any 
change in the mouth of the Kansas river caused by said floods, if any 
change was caused thereby. 

No attempt has been made to change the line since its establishment in 
1823. It would be of no consequence whatever if it could be shown con- 
clusively that the mouth of the Kansas river was at the foot of Broadway 
in Kansas City, Mo., in 1830, and that it remained there until 1855, when 
the surveys of Wyandotte county, Kansas, were made, unless it could be 
shown that it was there in 1820, and so remained until after 1823, and was 
entirely ignored by Joseph C. Brown in his survey of the state line in that 
year. Neither would it be of any consequence to show that this same point 
was as far west as the town of Muncie, in Wyandotte county, unless this 
same fact could be shown in connection. That Joseph C. Brown made a 
proper location of the mouth of the Kansas river and the state line in 1823 
is beyond question. The evidence that he did so is overwhelming; there is 
absolutely no evidence to the contrary. There is an entire absence of mo- 
tive for any erroneous location. The country was uninhabited and sup- 
posed by many people to be uninhabitable. The Missouri lands could be 
bought for $1.25 per acre, and so little demand for them existed at even 
that price that one township was not sectionized until 1843. 

Some contention is made by Kansas that the survey of 1855, when the 
Wyandotte county lands were surveyed, was erroneous in so far as it con- 
cerned the state line. It has also been claimed that the mouth of the Kan- 
sas river as it existed at that time was made the initial point of the state 
line. Neither of these contentions can hold; and the proofs that they have 
no foundation in fact, but are squarely contradicted by conclusive evidence, 
exist in the offices of the register of deeds and the county surveyor of 
Wyandotte county, as well as in the state auditor's office in Topeka. Let 
any man examine these certified copies of the original surveys of Wyan- 
dotte county lands made in 1855. It is there shown that all the surveys of 
Wyandotte county were closed on the state line as established in 1823, and 
upon which the surveys of Jackson county, Missouri, were closed. Nothing 
else could be shown unless a vacant and unsurveyed strip was left between 
the line of 1823 and that of 1855, or the corners of townships and sections of 
Jackson county, Missouri, moved west and closed up the mythical line of 
1855, a supposition absurd and ridiculous. The township and section cor- 
ners of the Jackson county lands as surveyed in 1826 and 1827 were never 
extended west, but remain as originally fixed. And the Wyandotte county 
townships and sections correspond with them, meet them, and are closed 
upon them. The survey of 1855 did survey a line south from the mouth of 
the Kansas river as it then existed, and marked such line upon the plat of 
the survey, where it may be seen by one and all, but they made no attempt 
to estabHsh it as the state line. The distance west from the true state 
line, of this line south from the mouth of the Kansas river in 1855, is set 
down on the survey as twenty chains and fifteen links, and Fowler's pack- 



The Boundary Lines of Kansas. 27 

ing house, Armour's packing house, the stockyards and most of old Kansas 
City, Kan., is east of this line, but I have not heard of any Kansan claim- 
ing that these institutions were in Missouri, The claim that the state line 
has been changed since 1823, or that it was then erroneously located, is a 
preposterous absurdity. 

The original surveys and plats all show that Turkey creek emptied into 
the Missouri river just below the present location of Dold's packing house, 
A part of the old bed is now used as a dump just east of Abernathy's ware- 
house, on Ninth street. William Mulkey's recollections of the location of 
this stream are confirmed by the statements of Gov. William Walker in his 
journals. William Walker was the principal man in the Wyandot nation. 
He settled on the banks of Jersey creek, in what is now Sunnyside addition, 
in Kansas City, Kan., in 1843. He was elected provisional governor of Ne- 
braska territory in 1853, when all of what is now Kansas and Nebraska and 
parts of Colorado and Wyoming was called Nebraska, He was a very care- 
ful man in his statements, a man of great ability and splendid attainments. 
He kept a daily journal for thirty years, commencing in 1844, of portions of 
which I have procured copies, and will include in my publication on early 
times in Wyandotte county, etc., and called "The Provisional Government 
of Nebraska Territory, " to be issued inside of the next sixty days. 

Governor Walker says, in his entry on Saturday, March 10, 1849: "Cloudy, 
warm and foggy. Prospect of more rain. Went to town and stayed all day. 
The Kansas river still rising. The Turkey creek bridge gone." And on 
Saturday, August 20, 1850: "Clear and warm. Went to Kansas, and on my 
way found the ferry boat at Turkey creek sunk. After hard labor (and I 
bearing the principal part) we succeeded in getting her afloat ; then com- 
menced the process of bailing with an old tin kettle with as many holes as 
it had seen years, and their name was legion." 

The term "Kansas" in the above entry means Kansas City, Mo., which 
was always called "Kansas" by the Wyandots, 

The measurements of the old surveys about Turkey creek were verified 
in the survey of the lands belonging to Silas Armstrong's estate and D. E, 
James in sections 14 and 23, township 11, range 25, Wyandotte county, Kan- 
sas. I have a copy of the plat of said survey, and many of the field notes. 
The survey was made by order of the district court of Wyandotte county, 
Kansas, and the number of the cause in said court is 1066. The files in said 
cause are open to public inspection. The lands involved in this cause are 
now the most valuable in Wyandotte county, embracing all of old Kansas 
City, Kan., and if any error had been made it would have been discovered 
long ago. On this plat are marked the corners of the sections of the survey 
of lands of Jackson county made in 1826 and 1827, and the survey of the 
above Kansas lands connects with these Missouri corners. 

The old Wyandots that I have consulted on this matter always said that 
the mouth of the Kansas river was changed very little by the flood of 1844. 
While it would be of no consequence if it had, I mention this fact to correct 
wild statements to the effect that some of the Wyandots said the Kansas 
river emptied into the Missouri river below the Union depot. No Wyan- 
dot ever made such a statement to me, and I have talked to almost all of 
them. The claim that they had said so is refuted by their names for the 
Missouri river and for the site of Kansas City, Mo. They call the Missouri 
river "Kyooh-tahn-deh-yooh-rah." Some of the older ones pronounce it 



28 Kansas State Historical Society. 

"Kyooh-tehn-den-dooh-rih," and this is perhaps the older and better form 
of writing it. They claim that their people knew of and named this river 
centuries ago. The name signifies "muddy river," or "muddy water," or 
perhaps it might be rendered "yellow water," or "yellow river." But the 
majority of them say it means "muddy river." 

They call the site of Kansas City, Mo., "Kyooh-rah-dooh-hih." This 
signifies "the point where the rock projects into the Kyooh-tahn-deh-yooh- 
rah, " or the point where the cliff stands into the Kyooh-tahn-deh-yooh-rah. 
They so call it because the bluff stood boldly out into the waters of the 
Missouri at that point. The principle that accurate descriptions are em- 
beded in Indian names is recognized by all students and scholars. 



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